1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a boardlock having a latch for securing to a printed circuit board, and especially to a boardlock having bent barbs on the latch.
2. Description of Prior Art
Generally, an electrical connector is mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) by soldering. Some electrical connectors have boardlocks for fastening the connectors to the PCB before the connector is soldered to the PCB. Conventional boardlocks are disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 85207102, 85217850 and 86211261 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,589.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional electrical connector 100 comprises a housing member 102, a pair of boardlocks 104 attached to the housing member 102 and a pair of grommets 106 extending through the boardlocks 104 and the housing member 102. Each boardlock 104 includes a base 108 and first and second latches 110, 112 extending from an edge of the base 108. The first latch 110 lies in a plane substantially perpendicular to the base 108, while the second latch 112 lies in the same plane as the base 108. First and second barbs 114, 116 are respectively formed at free ends of the first and the second latches 110, 112 for engaging with a PCB (not shown) thereby fastening the connector 100 to the PCB. The first and second barbs 114, 116 lie in the plane substantially perpendicular to the base 108 and extend in opposite directions.
Since the barbs 114, 116 extend in opposite directions and substantially align with each other, contact surfaces between the boardlock 104 and the PCB substantially lie in the same plane. Thus, the boardlock 104 can be easily disengaged from the PCB. Furthermore, the structure of the boardlock 104 complicates the manufacturing process.